Hello,

I have a 1998 jaguar with a Harmon Karman (sp) stereo system with cassette and CD player.  I want to use my ipod so I purchased a cassette adapter.  It works great but my question is…my Ipod id digital music, is it still digital playing through my speakers with the cassette adapter?

(answer after the jump)

Hi, Kurtis. Anything played through the headphone jack is analog. To keep it digital, you’d have to play through the dock connector. Regardless, tapes are analog, so your cassette adapter would necessarily be analog.

Oh well, it’s always analog when it comes out of the speakers! If you’re happy with the sound, that’s good enough. :)

The Tablet PC Input Panel didn’t go away, though. It’s the panel that slides out from the left side of the screen to allow you to use handwriting to enter text.

To disable it, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Uninstall Programs.
3. In the left pane, click Turn Windows Features On Or Off.

4. Clear the Tablet PC Optional Components check box.

5. Click OK.

6. When prompted, click Restart Now and let your computer restart.

Tony,

One in five people pack a laptop with them when they travel on vacation (AP-Ipsos poll) and as technology advances and wireless mobility increases, more and more employees are able to work remotely or travel while staying in touch with the office. However, this dependency, while convenient, can become stressful if the technology isn’t working correctly. 

No one wants their vacation ruined because they missed an important deadline due to a slow connection. support.com, a leader in remote tech support services for consumers, has the ability to fix any tech headaches without the hassle of sending the laptop away to be fixed or waiting for someone to come to the rescue in-person. Within minutes, a support.com solutions engineer can be on the phone, guiding consumers through their issues, guaranteeing there are no missed deadlines – or missed boats to the next island.

Here are a few tips:
1. Make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and check that you have a firewall installed.
2. Power down all non-essential functions.
3. Set up message filters in your e-mail system so you can separate messages that can’t wait.
4. Give your computer a tune-up by defragmenting your hard drive so it performs at its best.

A press release is below with more information.

Small Business Owners Most Likely to Take Laptop on Vacation; support.com Offers Tips to Avoid Computer ProblemsREDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 17 — One in five people is now packing a laptop on vacation(i). Small business owners are especially likely to bring their computers on vacation, with 75 percent checking in by phone or e-mail at least once a day while on vacation(ii). In addition, nearly half of small business owners consider downtime a guilty pleasure, forcing nearly one third to check in by phone or e-mail several times a day while on vacation(iii).

“As a small business owner, I bring my computer on vacation out of necessity,” said Nancy Sartanowicz, president of Workplace Strategies, LLC in Medford, Mass. “The last thing I want to deal with while on vacation is a computer problem. What’s worse, small business owners like myself often don’t know where to turn to have their computer problems solved, especially when they’re away from home on vacation.”

Whether you’re taking your computer on vacation out of necessity or enjoyment, encountering computer problems during precious leisure time can be even more annoying than usual. support.com, a remote tech support service which provides consumers with Instant Technology Relief(SM) from their frustrating computer issues, offers tips to people who want to spend more time enjoying their vacation and less time dealing with computer problems.

support.com recommends consumers and small business owners alike take simple steps to work smart and stay safe:

    1. Take precautions against hackers when accessing wireless networks or “hot spots” on the road.  Make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and check that you have a firewall installed on your computer.  As an extra precaution, password-protect sensitive files and turn off “file sharing” on your computer.

    2. When you do have downtime to work, make sure your laptop battery doesn’t give out on you.  To extend the life of your battery, power down all non-essential functions, such as DVD players and wireless network cards.  In addition, most laptops have other power saving functions which can be accessed by simply double-clicking on the battery icon on the toolbar.

    3. Make the best use of your valuable vacation time by focusing only on the e-mail that must be addressed immediately.  Set up message filters in your e-mail system so that you can more easily separate and identify messages that can’t wait from those that can.  Consider setting up an automated e-mail message that shows you’re out of town and will be responding only to urgent messages.

    4. Make sure your computer is performing its best to help avoid problems. Give your computer a tune-up by defragmenting your hard drive, getting rid of any spyware or malware, and deleting any programs you don’t use which might lengthen boot-up time or decrease performance.

“Some people take their computers on vacation so that they can have more leisure time to surf the Web or communicate with family and friends. For others, such as small business owners, it’s a choice between taking their computer on vacation and not having a vacation at all,” said Eleanor Lacey, vice president of corporate development responsible for support.com. “No matter the case, the last thing that anyone wants to do is deal with a computer problem while on vacation. These steps can help ensure that they can enjoy as much of their leisure time as possible.”

About SupportSoft and support.com
SupportSoft is a leading provider of technology problem resolution software and services. The Company’s solutions reduce technology support costs, improve customer satisfaction and enable new revenue streams for companies reaching 50 million users worldwide. The Company has expanded its offerings and now provides Instant Technology Relief to frustrating technology problems directly to consumers at http://www.support.com/. For more information about the Company and its corporate offerings, visit supportsoft.com; for Instant Technology Relief(SM) to consumer technology problems, visit http://www.support.com/ or dial 1-800-PC-SUPPORT.

     (i)    AP-Ipsos poll, June 1, 2007
     (ii)   OPEN from American Express Small Business Monitor survey, April
            2007
     (iii)  OPEN from American Express Small Business Monitor survey, April
            2007

I read one of your postings about running a second monitor with a laptop.

I have a MacBook running OSX and Windows XP. The Mac side has provisions for closing the case completely while connected to an external keyboard and mouse. If I close it while running Windows, the monitor is prompted to hibernate. How can I change this?

Answer:

I don’t have a MacBook, but I can tell you how to configure the power settings, which control this:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Hardware and Sound.

3. Under Power Options, click Change what the power buttons do.

4. Under Plugged in, click the When I close the lid list. Then, click Do nothing. You can do this under On battery, too, though it sounds like you’re only concerned about disabling automatic hibernation when you’re plugged in at your desk.

5. Click Save changes.

By the way, Sleep basically replaces Hibernation in Windows Vista. Sleep goes into Standby for a while, and then eventually goes into Hibernation to save batteries.

Hibernation is VERY useful. Unfortunately, it consumes disk space equal to the memory in your computer. I have 2GB of memory in my laptop, so keeping a hibernation file uses up 2GB of valuable disk space. Because of this, many people choose to turn hibernation off.

Here’s the catch: Windows Vista doesn’t provide a user interface for turning hibernation back on after you’ve turned it off (wha…?). Fellow MVP Alun Jones discovered this and found the solution: an administrative command prompt. These are documented in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 920730, How to Disable and Renable Hibernation on a Computer that is Running Windows Vista. Here are some easier instructions, though:

To disable hibernation:

Click Start. Type powercfg /hibernate off.  Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

To enable hibernation:

Click Start. Type powercfg /hibernate on.  Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

A command prompt will appear and disappear. The program doesn’t give you any feedback anyway, so you’re not missing anything.

Yes, I really do love the new Start menu, and that Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut to run a program as an Administrator.

Remote Desktop lets you control another computer across the network. To use it, first enable Remote Desktop on the computer you want to control. Then, follow these steps to connect to it:

1. Click Start, type remote, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.

2. In the Remote Desktop Connection window, type the name of the computer you want to connect to. You can configure the display size and settings by clicking the Options button.
3. Click Connect.

The Remote Desktop window will open and show you the remote computer (assuming nobody is using it–only one person can use the computer at a time).

If both the client computer and the remote computer support Aero, you can use Aero within Remote Desktop. This works even if the client computer has Aero disabled, so long as the computer supports it.

If Remote Desktop doesn’t connect, it’s probably a firewall problem. When you enable Remote Desktop on the computer you want to control, Vista automatically creates the necessary firewall exception. So, it’s probably a network firewall such as a router. I can’t give you specific instructions to fix this, because every router is different. However, you will need to open TCP port 3389. If you are using Network Address Translation (NAT), you will need to forward traffic for TCP port 3389 to your Remote Desktop host’s IP address.

If you want to connect to another computer in your home across your network, follow these steps (you’ll need access to an administrator account):

1. On the computer you want to connect to, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

2. Make note of the Computer name (listed halfway down the page). Then, under Tasks, click Remote settings.

3. If all your computers are running Vista, click Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication. If you have some earlier versions of Windows that you want to use to connect to this computer, click Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop.
4. Click Select Users.

5. In the Select Users dialog, click the Add button. Type the name of the user you want to grant access to, and then click OK. Repeat this step to add more users.

6. Click OK twice.

Windows Vista will automatically open the necessary exception in Windows Firewall. Now, you are ready to use Remote Desktop to connect to the computer from another computer.

If you need to enable Remote Desktop on a computer that you can remotely manage but doesn’t yet have Remote Desktop turned on, follow these steps:

1. Use Regedit to open the registry of the remote computer.
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server.
3. Set fDenyTSConnections to 0, and create it if necessary. It’s set to 1 by default, which disables it.